‘I’m here for you’: Hospital chaplain recounts offering comfort, hope to parade shooting victims

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - In the initial moments of the chaos and confusion of the shooting after the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade a year ago, trained professionals sprang into action.

Police officers sprinted toward the gunfire to confront the danger head-on. Doctors and medical specialists who were on-site began immediate treatment of the wounded.

Another group of professionals waited at various hospitals to offer the shooting victims and their families comfort and hope with a higher purpose.

“On that day, I was in the emergency room,” said Jeff Howard, the director of Chaplain Services at University Health Truman Medical Center.

It had been a fairly routine day of work for Howard, but then: “We just heard that there had been a shooting. Didn’t know exactly how many people, we didn’t exactly know the location.”

Howard learned there were multiple shooting victims at the Chiefs rally, and he became aware that emergency rooms would be swamped with the wounded.

But he also knew there would be chaos involving family, loved ones and friends of the wounded who had no idea to which hospital they had been taken. He said the violence and chaos that broke out was traumatic, both physically and emotionally, for so many people who were at the rally and those he saw in the emergency room.

Howard said that during painful times, chaplains have a unique way of helping and healing.

“Some people know that a chaplain is a representative of God. Whether they’re in a church or not, they feel like having the chaplain in the room,” he said. “It’s a reminder [for them] that God’s presence is there, and so for a lot of people, there’s that sense of ‘I’m not in control. The chaplain’s not in control, but someone’s in control.' And that helps a lot of people.”

Something else Howard said helps put people at ease is the simple fact that he’s not a medical professional.

“As a non-medical person, I think sometimes it helps,” Howard said. “Because I don’t have a lot of jargon to throw at them. I can just tell them on a very basic human level—‘OK, it’s very understandable you’re scared. Anybody would be scared in your situation. It’s very normal to be scared, but I’m here for you.‘”

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